At the ripe old age of far too young, I was simultaneously discovering YouTube, horror media, and anime. This eventually led me to me repeatedly looking up variations of 'top ten scariest animes', and eating up whatever I could get my grubby little hands on. I've seen all the classics. Another, Higurashi, Perfect Blue, Paranoia Agent, you name it. This led me eventually to the brand new Corpse Party: Tortured Souls, a four episode OVA from 2013 based on this game. I was fascinated and horrified by it in equal measure, and when I found out it had a game, I wanted nothing more than to play it. Unfortunately, I couldn't exactly ask my parents for a game with Corpse Party in the title and I was a wee little guy who hadn't heard the word emulation before. So I was stuck watching YouTube playthroughs and obsessively reading the wiki.
Corpse Party was a part of my life for a good long while. I'd tell anyone who listened my opinions on all the characters and which parts were the scariest. I drew fanart in all my notebooks, and I vividly remember my mom asking if a drawing of Sachiko was meant to be a self portrait. Seiko probably contributed to me figuring out lesbianism was a thing, and it was a thing that applied to me. I listened to the soundtrack on loop for hours. For a preteen (and eventually just teen) edgy bitch, Corpse Party was like catnip to me.
That all started about a decade ago, and I'm in college now. I found myself reminiscing about Corpse Party a while ago, and I remembered I'd never actually beaten the game for myself. So there I was, curious as to whether this game that should probably not be nostalgic for actually holds up. Surprisingly, it mostly does.
Corpse Party (and yes, I do know this is not the original version of the game at all, but I'm not typing out that whole title) is a game that excels in atmosphere. What it lacks in visuals, it more than makes up for audio. Audio is by far the strongest part of the game. From voice actors giving it their all with horrified screaming and deranged laughter to the disgusting array of sound effects to the fantastic (and sometimes banging) music, this is a game you want to play with a good pair of headphones.
The characters, much as I loved them, really aren't the most fleshed out and interesting in the world, but the story is great. The various reveals are perfectly spaced to keep you engaged and really feeling like you're untangling an old mystery. And while the other three dead characters are mostly just fodder, Seiko is arguably the emotional core of the story. The last scene in the game still gets me a little bit.
The gameplay is... not always straightforward. You'll want a walkthrough handy, because making one mistake can lead to a wrong end several hours and saves later if you're not careful. My extensive wiki reading back in the day mostly spared me from this fate, but these characters can and will die horrifically if you don't play your cards exactly right. It's not old school adventure games levels of cruel by a long shot, but it's enough that it can be annoying.
Finally, the last main thing I want to talk about is the game's.... for lack of a better term, anime bullshit. You know what I'm talking about. You know exactly what I'm talking about. It's the main reason I didn't rate the game higher. When I was younger and I didn't know better, it didn't bother me nearly as much but now that I'm older, the obnoxious sexualization of all the girls, who are all high schoolers or younger is harder to stomach than the gore. I know it's a horror game, but that's a poor excuse when it's clearly not played for horror, and sexual violence is effectively played for horror later on in the story. I wish it wasn't present.
This has been a mostly fun and spooky walk down memory lane for me, and I thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings. Corpse Party was very important to me, and it was nice to visit an old friend, warts and all.
Corpse Party was a part of my life for a good long while. I'd tell anyone who listened my opinions on all the characters and which parts were the scariest. I drew fanart in all my notebooks, and I vividly remember my mom asking if a drawing of Sachiko was meant to be a self portrait. Seiko probably contributed to me figuring out lesbianism was a thing, and it was a thing that applied to me. I listened to the soundtrack on loop for hours. For a preteen (and eventually just teen) edgy bitch, Corpse Party was like catnip to me.
That all started about a decade ago, and I'm in college now. I found myself reminiscing about Corpse Party a while ago, and I remembered I'd never actually beaten the game for myself. So there I was, curious as to whether this game that should probably not be nostalgic for actually holds up. Surprisingly, it mostly does.
Corpse Party (and yes, I do know this is not the original version of the game at all, but I'm not typing out that whole title) is a game that excels in atmosphere. What it lacks in visuals, it more than makes up for audio. Audio is by far the strongest part of the game. From voice actors giving it their all with horrified screaming and deranged laughter to the disgusting array of sound effects to the fantastic (and sometimes banging) music, this is a game you want to play with a good pair of headphones.
The characters, much as I loved them, really aren't the most fleshed out and interesting in the world, but the story is great. The various reveals are perfectly spaced to keep you engaged and really feeling like you're untangling an old mystery. And while the other three dead characters are mostly just fodder, Seiko is arguably the emotional core of the story. The last scene in the game still gets me a little bit.
The gameplay is... not always straightforward. You'll want a walkthrough handy, because making one mistake can lead to a wrong end several hours and saves later if you're not careful. My extensive wiki reading back in the day mostly spared me from this fate, but these characters can and will die horrifically if you don't play your cards exactly right. It's not old school adventure games levels of cruel by a long shot, but it's enough that it can be annoying.
Finally, the last main thing I want to talk about is the game's.... for lack of a better term, anime bullshit. You know what I'm talking about. You know exactly what I'm talking about. It's the main reason I didn't rate the game higher. When I was younger and I didn't know better, it didn't bother me nearly as much but now that I'm older, the obnoxious sexualization of all the girls, who are all high schoolers or younger is harder to stomach than the gore. I know it's a horror game, but that's a poor excuse when it's clearly not played for horror, and sexual violence is effectively played for horror later on in the story. I wish it wasn't present.
This has been a mostly fun and spooky walk down memory lane for me, and I thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings. Corpse Party was very important to me, and it was nice to visit an old friend, warts and all.
Jeu d'horreur assez flippant grâce à son ambiance sonore et son côté très gore. Dommage que le jeu soit un peu frustant à cause de sa difficulté à deviner parfois ce qu'il faut faire, au point de devoir utiliser une soluce. Et certains personnages qui amènent à des situations vraiment cringe...
kicks sachiko out the window
While I'm not sure I liked it as much as I wish I could've, I can't deny some of the quality in the writing and how influential it was at the time of its release. The few lackluster main characters and cliffhanger ending just kind of bum me out a bit, especially being aware of how awful the series gets past this point.
Corpse Party is downright terrifying. Just thinking about it makes me paranoid. The audio recording technique they used makes it a nightmare to play with headphones, because it truly feels like sounds are coming at you from all directions. Gameplay-wise it's a pretty simple adventure game, but it still took me awhile to get through it.
If you're a fan of rpg maker games then this is worth a shot. Not particularly scary but it's a good narrative experience. The premise is rather cliche and not particularly scary but there's a nice amount of gore and the death scenes are really descriptive which i find to be more effective than showing a cg of how they died
Hands down the best Horror RPG ever made and one of the best stories to come out of the japanese horror genre.
Festinha do balacobaco
Oh man, better times when i played this game with my boys. trying to figure out those dumbass puzzles in the AM's was peak life. i cant lie, im a bit bias when it comes to this game due to that but the story and the HORROR oh man, it still holds up during a solo playthrough. the jank and the difficulty take this down a bit but every other aspect blows a lot of other horror games out the water.
One of the most visceral games I've played. Corpse Party isn't a perfect game, in fact a lot of the game elements actually hurt it. As an experience though I think it stands above the average horror story. CP is a adventure game that lies heavily on the visual novel side.
A lot of the exploring and puzzle solving can be quite frustrating. I'd go as far to say it's almost impossible at times to know what to do without a guide. While that sucks it doesn't hamper what I'm playing the game for.
The story is rather straight forward but it's Corpse Party's intensity in it's description, sound and voice work that sets it apart. In CP you play as several characters who are trapped inside a haunted school and are slowly being killed one by one as they try to figure out how to escape. This is one of those games where the path to victory is set in stone and there is only one true end but has many bad ends sprinkled throughout. Normaly when I play and come to an abrupt end after one bad choice or picking the wrong option you couldn't possibly get right the first time and get a bad end I hate it and feel like it's a waste of time. Not here though. The bad ends have a lot of time put into them and get pretty damn creative and gory on how your character meets their end. The awesome sound design and voice work really elevate the experience. There are times when it really does sound like a person is being murdered right in front of me. They are never overly long for the most part and don't over stay their welcome and you can just reload right back to where you were.
One of the key features is that every line is voiced and even though it's in Japanese you can tell it's a stellar cast and a point that they were clearly proud of behind the scenes. That coupled with the amazing sound design. Sound effects are loud and impactful and feel all too real at times when it comes to gut wrenching sounds. The music is a very different for a horror game. It's often uplifting and bombastic and something you can really groove too. It goes well with those horror protagonists that you really want to see succeed. You would think that would clash with what's going on but often times it's the stark cut of no sound and just the pure sound effects that really drive the horror home. The lingering moody pieces do their work as well. I really like the score for this game a lot and it really sets up the mood they are going for.
The writing is pretty decent here and outside one cringe moment part at the start, there aren't too many bad anime tropes. The descriptions in the text and the characters are all pretty well defined and not one dimensional. The game does an amazing job at setting up it's world and backstory as you learn the history of the haunted school piece by piece. The school Heavenly Host is one of my favorite horror settings right up there with Resident Evil and Silent Hill. Heavenly Host isn't just a location but also it's own character as it's actually alive. Truly spooky when your environment is aware of you and can change to put you in a bad spot that could cause your death. This is one of those places where if you wind up here you are beyond screwed. I don't want to get into spoilers or anything but this is one place that I won't soon forget.
A lot of the exploring and puzzle solving can be quite frustrating. I'd go as far to say it's almost impossible at times to know what to do without a guide. While that sucks it doesn't hamper what I'm playing the game for.
The story is rather straight forward but it's Corpse Party's intensity in it's description, sound and voice work that sets it apart. In CP you play as several characters who are trapped inside a haunted school and are slowly being killed one by one as they try to figure out how to escape. This is one of those games where the path to victory is set in stone and there is only one true end but has many bad ends sprinkled throughout. Normaly when I play and come to an abrupt end after one bad choice or picking the wrong option you couldn't possibly get right the first time and get a bad end I hate it and feel like it's a waste of time. Not here though. The bad ends have a lot of time put into them and get pretty damn creative and gory on how your character meets their end. The awesome sound design and voice work really elevate the experience. There are times when it really does sound like a person is being murdered right in front of me. They are never overly long for the most part and don't over stay their welcome and you can just reload right back to where you were.
One of the key features is that every line is voiced and even though it's in Japanese you can tell it's a stellar cast and a point that they were clearly proud of behind the scenes. That coupled with the amazing sound design. Sound effects are loud and impactful and feel all too real at times when it comes to gut wrenching sounds. The music is a very different for a horror game. It's often uplifting and bombastic and something you can really groove too. It goes well with those horror protagonists that you really want to see succeed. You would think that would clash with what's going on but often times it's the stark cut of no sound and just the pure sound effects that really drive the horror home. The lingering moody pieces do their work as well. I really like the score for this game a lot and it really sets up the mood they are going for.
The writing is pretty decent here and outside one cringe moment part at the start, there aren't too many bad anime tropes. The descriptions in the text and the characters are all pretty well defined and not one dimensional. The game does an amazing job at setting up it's world and backstory as you learn the history of the haunted school piece by piece. The school Heavenly Host is one of my favorite horror settings right up there with Resident Evil and Silent Hill. Heavenly Host isn't just a location but also it's own character as it's actually alive. Truly spooky when your environment is aware of you and can change to put you in a bad spot that could cause your death. This is one of those places where if you wind up here you are beyond screwed. I don't want to get into spoilers or anything but this is one place that I won't soon forget.
Fenomenal. Confesso que de primeira não esperava muito do jogo, pensava que seria só mais uma Visual Novel de terror genérica. Eu estava errado. As mecânicas de Gameplay do jogo são boas, a história vai te envolvendo cada vez mais a cada capítulo, a atmosfera que é construída ao seu redor junto da bela trilha sonora fazem você se sentir mais e mais ansioso para o que vai acontecer. Outra ocasião que gostei bastante foi quando os fantasmas começam a te perseguir, sinto que causou uma boa imersão na jogatina. O plot twist foi algo que me pegou de surpresa, não esperava aquilo. Mesmo vale para certos personagens, no qual eu me enganei completamente. Definitivamente um dos meus favoritos do PSP.